


The Hard Knock Life

by susanowa (panickyintheuk)



Series: Inconveniences Rightly Considered [4]
Category: Marvel Adventures (Comics), Marvel Adventures: Avengers, Marvel Adventures: Iron Man
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Identity Porn, M/M, Major Character Injury, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-27
Updated: 2016-07-27
Packaged: 2018-07-27 04:05:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7602724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/panickyintheuk/pseuds/susanowa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony returns from an unscheduled off-grid vacation. Everyone was worried sick! Iron Man has some explaining to do.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Hard Knock Life

**Author's Note:**

> For bingo square T5, 'wilderness survival'.
> 
> This takes place in the immediate aftermath of MA:IM #8, 'The Simple Life'. If you're not familiar, see the end notes for my summary!
> 
> Injuries are discussed, but not graphically described.

Steve slammed into Tony's office. He'd run all the way here, and up the stairs as well, too keyed up to wait for the elevator, and not convinced that it would be faster. It had done little to dispel the churning adrenaline that had been going through him ever since Ms Potts had called and said that Tony was back. Nobody had even _told_ him until after Tony had been checked out of medical and come here, and Steve understood that -- informing him wasn't a top priority -- but it stung anyway.

"Where have you been? Everybody was worried sick!"

"I'm sorry. I got into an accident. I was stranded somewhere without power, so I couldn't get in contact."

"Are you all right?" said Steve, with an abortive movement towards him. He wanted to check him all over for injuries, but he knew that wouldn't be appropriate, and honestly, this wasn't a teammate wounded in the field. Tony had doctors. It was just a difficult habit to break.

"I'm okay. Broken leg. Bruised ribs. Just need to watch out for infection, because of my heart condition. So I'm on... quite a lot of pain medication. Sorry. Am I babbling?"

"No," said Steve. He wasn't babbling at all, but he was probably sharing more than he otherwise would, and Steve felt like his lungs were full of ice crystals. And he was angry. "Where was Iron Man, during all of this?"

Tony blinked. "He was... looking for me, I guess."

"And why wasn't _he_ in contact with us? It was _days and days_ , Tony!" He hadn't meant to raise his voice like that. It had been a bad week. They'd had to fight the Zodiac without Iron Man, and the whole time he hadn't been able to think straight with worry.

Tony looked up at him. "I'm not totally sure right now. I can find out for you." God, he looked exhausted.

"No, forget it," said Steve. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to take it out on you. Tony, why aren't you at home?"

"I'm just looking over my notes on the Buffalo plant closure, trying to figure out if there's some way I could have kept it open --"

"That can wait," Steve said sternly. "You need rest."

"I'm fine."

"It seems as though you and I have pretty different definitions of 'fine'. Mine doesn't include a broken leg." _And a heart condition that could be endangered by your bruised ribs_ , he didn't say, because that was even scarier. He'd known Tony had a heart condition, in a vague, abstract sort of way, but Tony had always seemed so -- invincible. Until now. "I'm calling you an Uber."

"It's just a hairline fracture," said Tony. "And Lyft is better."

Steve scrubbed a hand across his face and made a helpless, frustrated noise. "What _ever_ , Tony! Just, would you take it easy? _Please_?"

He came around to Tony's side of the desk, offered him a hand. Tony was wearing a bulky, complicated-looking leg brace. He would probably replace it with one of his own design, Steve thought, when he had the chance, and it would be sleek and lightweight.

Tony reluctantly stood up, putting some of his weight on Steve, and handing him one of the crutches that had been leaning against his desk.

It might have been faster and easier for him just to use the crutches to cross the floor, but Steve wanted to feel like he was being useful in some way, and he wanted the excuse to touch him. Really, he wanted to pull him close, hold him in his arms, never mind that he was still figuring out where he stood with Tony, never mind that he was trying to take things slow. He probably would have, too, but he was hyper-aware of Tony's ribs, and of his own strength.

As he shuffled them towards the door, Steve suddenly thought of something -- he'd been so distracted by Tony's injuries he'd forgotten something equally important. He felt terrible. "Have you been in contact with Iron Man? He's not still missing?"

"No, no," Tony reassured him. "I haven't had a chance to debrief him yet, but we're in contact."

"And he's okay?"

"He's..." Tony hesitated.

Steve was suddenly gripped with panic. "Tony, what aren't you telling me?"

"Steve, please, don't worry. I have spoken to him, there's nothing seriously wrong. It's just that I'm not sure I'm going to be able to clear him for active duty right away."

"Can I see him?" He heard his voice waver, and felt foolish. Of course he trusted Tony's word, but he'd just feel better if he could see for himself.

"Uh... that might be a little difficult right now. Don't look like that, it's just because of his identity, I swear he's fine. I can have him call you, all right?"

"Yes, of course." Steve took a calming breath. He hated that he was stressing Tony out right now, when all he wanted to do was make him feel better and keep him safe, but he needed to know that Iron Man was safe too. "Let's get you home," he said.

"Yeah. Please don't actually call a Lyft, I do have a chauffeur."

 

* * *

 

Tony cursed his slow thinking. If his head hadn't been so cloudy, he wouldn't have made such a mess of his story. He could have said that Iron Man was with him when he crashed, then it would seem like less of a coincidence that they were both injured at the same time. But Pepper had been with Rhodey when they picked him up -- if she ever compared notes with Steve, they'd know he was lying. He had to come up with something else. And he needed to check with Rhodey, too, make sure they weren't contradicting each other's stories.

He hated being on pain meds. He hadn't been on anything while he was with the townspeople, and he'd managed then, but his doctor had insisted. If his ribs hurt, he might not take deep enough breaths, and if he didn't take deep enough breaths, he might get a chest infection, and if he got a chest infection, his heart might give out. Blah blah blah. The fact remained that the meds made him fuzzy, and if his head was fuzzy and he couldn't wear the suit then he was literally useless.

And now Steve was worried about Iron Man, too, all because Tony couldn't bluff fast enough to come up with a decent cover story. And it looked like Iron Man would have to be out of commission for a while. He could ask Rhodey to wear the suit, but Rhodey hated doing that so much, and one of the Avengers would probably notice something different about him eventually -- something about the way he flew, or not remembering something he ought to. And he hadn't trained with the team -- that could even be dangerous. So that was out.

Tony was very tempted to carry on as Iron Man anyway, but realistically, the broken leg would interfere with his flying and make him a liability to the others.

At least there was one thing he could do -- call Steve and assuage his fears about Iron Man. He needed to speak to Rhodey first, figure out what they were telling everyone, and he'd have to concentrate, make sure he didn't let anything stupid slip, but he could do it. He just had to push through the fog in his mind for a little while. And then he could sleep. Buffalo could wait until morning.

 

* * *

 

Steve lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling. He hadn't let himself even think that Tony could be dead, the whole time he was missing, but he was beginning to realize that the thought had always been lurking close to the surface of his mind. He was only allowing himself to feel the possibility of it now that he knew it wasn't true. And Tony's _heart condition_ \-- would he ever really be safe? Steve was used to worrying about his teammates, who put themselves in danger ever day, who _signed up_ for that, were trained for it. Tony was different. He was part of what Steve was supposed to be protecting, and he couldn't, because however hard he fought, he couldn't protect people from bad luck or bad hearts.

But Tony _was_ alive, and so was Iron Man, and he had to hold on to that.

Almost as if his teammate had sensed that he was thinking about him, at that moment, his name lit up Steve's phone.

Steve answered immediately, clutched the phone to his ear. "Iron Man?"

"Hey. I'm sorry to call you so late, but Mr Stark said he thought you'd still be up. And he seemed to think you'd want to talk to me sooner rather than later."

"He was right, but what is _he_ doing up?"

"Don't worry. He's resting."

"All right. Are you okay? What happened?"

"Well, after Colonel Rhodes and I lost contact with Mr Stark's craft over the Alleghenies, I went out looking for him, and I was attacked by an unidentified combatant. I'm still looking into her identity. My suit was damaged, so I couldn't call for extraction. Mr Stark was able to locate me, but only after he'd made contact with Colonel Rhodes and was picked up himself."

Steve breathed out. It was good to get a real explanation. Tony had been so confused earlier, and Steve hadn't wanted to push him too hard. "So you were out in the mountains by yourself all that time?"

"Uh, no. I got some help. I was pretty lucky that my identity wasn't compromised, though."

"Were you injured?"

"I'm okay."

"Actually 'okay', or Tony's definition of 'okay'?"

Iron Man laughed. "Well... let's just say I'm in no worse shape than he is."

"That doesn't exactly reassure me, Shellhead." He thought of Tony's dispassionate run-down of his injuries, ending with the words 'heart condition'. His own heart hadn't quite recovered from that yet.

"Yeah. Well. Listen... I just wanted to give you a heads up, I might have to take some time off. It's nothing major, it's just that I'm not confident I can operate the suit at full capacity right now."

"I understand. Take all the time you need. I'm just glad you and Tony are all right."

"What about you, Cap? You feeling okay? Mr Stark said you seemed a little strung up."

No kidding. "I'm feeling better for hearing your voice. It's been kind of a tough week. You and Tony both missing at the same time -- I was pretty worried."

"I'm sorry, Cap. You know I would never go AWOL like that by choice."

"Of course I know that," Steve said guiltily. He hoped Tony hadn't told him about Steve's outburst earlier. He'd never really blamed or suspected Iron Man, not seriously; he'd just been all mixed up, between relief and concern and -- all those other things Tony made him feel. And there was really only one person he'd wanted to turn to all through this horrible week, and he hadn't been there either. Of course Steve was friends with the rest of the team, but he hadn't realized quite how much he relied on Iron Man's support, on and off the field, until it wasn't there. "I'm really glad you're back," he said, that waver creeping into his voice again.

"Good to be back, Steve."

Steve blinked. It was unusual for Iron Man to call him _Steve_. He couldn't figure out why, but it gave him the strangest feeling, like déjà vu.

"Anyway," said Iron Man, "I should really get going. I'm pretty beat."

"All right," said Steve. "Look after yourself. I don't want you back on the roster until you're fighting fit, hear me?"

"Ten-four. Speak to you soon."

Iron Man rang off. Steve put the phone down carefully, on top of the book on his bedside table, and turned over onto his side. He finally felt like he might be able to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> MA:IM #8: Justin Hammer employs Jolt to take out Iron Man. She attacks him in the air over the Allegheny Mountains and he falls out of the sky. He's discovered by a group of people from an intentional community who choose to live off-grid, and his leg is broken, so he's stranded there for several days before he can make contact with anyone. One of the townspeople is a woman named Hannah, who has a grudge against Tony Stark because the SI factory in Buffalo where she used to work closed down and left her unemployed. However, she ends up helping him anyway when Jolt shows up to finish the job. Canonically, only Jolt's ribs are specifically said to have been injured, but considering Tony's fall it seems likely that his would have been too. He does end up using a suit in this issue after having been injured, but it's an emergency scenario, and the suit is a Mark I-style effort and doesn't fly.
> 
> SO GUYS, decision time: so far I have roughly three-and-a-half more stories in this 'verse that are written or mostly written. They were all written for the current round of bingo, so I was planning on posting them all this week. HOWEVER, the last part jumps forward quite considerably to the latter part of MA:A canon. I have other stories I want to tell in this 'verse, some of which would happen in between. My temptation is to slot them in later, but if people have really strong opinions about me posting the stories in chronological order, I might revise that plan and hold the last story in reserve? It would kinda mess up my bingo card but my bingo card is already a mess, so I'm open to it. But honestly, I'm already thinking of going back and writing some missing scenes for the series thus far, so it might be moot anyway.
> 
> ALSO, I'm currently trying to polish up and post fics at a rate of about one a day throughout this week so that I don't spam-post a bunch of fics at once, but I might end up doing that on Sunday anyway depending on how many I manage to finish up in time, so if you feel like it would be better for me to just hold off and then post everything in one go on Sunday, feel free to weigh in on that as well.
> 
> Did any of that make sense even? I'm tired.
> 
> AND FINALLY, I can be found on tumblr at http://shiningredandgold.tumblr.com/


End file.
